The first known Native American engineer and notable engineer in the field of aerospace design.
Mary Ross was a Cherokee engineer from Park Hill, Oklahoma. She earned her bachelor’s in mathematics (Northeastern State Teachers’ College) and took every astronomy class offered at the Colorado State Teachers College while studying to earn her master’s degree. She went on to become the first female engineer hired by Lockheed and the first known Native American engineer in history. While at Lockheed, Ross worked in aerospace design, as she developed numerous design concepts for interplanetary space travel consisting of both crewed and uncrewed Earth-orbiting flights. In 1992, the Santa Clara Valley Section established a scholarship in her name and in 2018, she was chosen to be depicted on the Native American $1 Coin by the U.S. Mint.